For me, living on the border between the provinces of Siena and Florence, driving south in Tuscany means going through one of the most breathtaking scenery on the planet, the Val d’Orcia and the Crete Senesi, declared by UNESCO, in 2004, World Heritage Site. The outlines of the hills are well known throughout the world, just as the small group of cypress trees at the top of a small hill that seem placed there on purpose to inspire photographers and dreamers.

Pienza, Bagno Vignoni, San Quirico d’Orcia… these are lands of cheese, hot springs and soft landscapes. Then Montalcino, known throughout the world for its wine and also for the excellent extra virgin olive oil, the view that stretches to a far horizon of rolling hills and an abbey just outside the town where the air still vibrates with mysticism and Gregorian chants.

When you drive southward  you have a far away reference point, the Mount Amiata, an ancient and no longer active volcano that dominates the surrounding valleys, the Val d’Orcia, the Bolsena lake, the Chianti and the plain of Maremma. In cloudless days you can see the Amiata mountain even from Siena and my house, covered with chestnut and beech forests. Though it has the fire in its remote past, now is the water that represents its main source of wealth: the Fiora waterworks supply with the local water the entire southern Tuscany and northern Lazio.

Until a few years ago the Mount Amiata was well-known for its winter tourism, being the most important ski resort in the southern Tuscany with its ski tows and its cozy mountain huts. Nowadays it is instead mostly appreciated for the fresh air, the green areas, the hot springs and a straightforward and hearty cuisine.

The goal of our southward trip was Piancastagnaio, famous for its incredible houses clinging to the side of a cliff and protected by the fortress Aldobrandeschi. Piancastagnaio is named after the splendid chestnut trees which surround the town and gift the villagers with one of the most important ingredients of their local cuisine, the chestnuts, celebrated every year in the famous Crastatone festival.

If you’ll ever visit Piancastagnaio, I do suggest you to climb to the Rocca Aldebrandesca, just to enjoy the pictoresque view of the town spreading beneath, with red roofs, the clock tower and the smoke from the chimneys, painting the scenario of an old time mountain village, genuine and true.

And now we enter in a Lord of the Rings genealogy: Piancastagnaio is the hometown of my friend Paolo, who is the husband of my best friend Laura, famous for the luscious Sacher Torte recipe, as well as for being the daughter of Rita, who revealed me the recipe for the delicious pine nut cake, and from now on also for being the daughter-in-law of the woman who gave me the recipe of the ricciolina, the decadent cake who pushed us South!

A first clarification is due, since I really do not want to raise the wrath of neighbour villagers, separated by colorful rivalries as always happens in Italy: the ricciolina tart belongs to the culinary tradition of Abbadia San Salvatore, not to Piancastagnaio. So do not hold it against me if the recipe comes from Laura’s mother-in-law from Piancastagnaio, I strongly believe that a thick slice of shortcrust pastry filled with creamy chocolate spread – now replaced with the world famous Nutella – would help even the most bitter enemies to come to an agreement.

The ricciolina tart hides between two crumbly shortcrust layers a thick Nutella filling and a generous handful of dried fruit, just to make it even more devilishly good. As the filling is made with Nutella, the first thing that comes to mind would be to use hazelnuts, but you can find sometimes also almonds or walnuts. I chose walnuts.

The walnuts are extremely appreciated in the Tuscan pastry making (just think at cavallucci) and their use goes back to the old times when myths and legends were part of the everyday life. Despite the love for this rich dried fruit, the relationship with the walnut trees has always been based on respect and fear. It was thought that the witches chose these trees as a shelter: every time the wayfarers found a walnut tree with a cracked trunk, they used to abandon that path not to wake up the witch who rested inside.

This is a mountain tart, a rustic and traditional shortcrust with a thick filling of Nutella and walnuts, covered by a gentle puff of meringue on which you can draw squiggles of chocolate, from which the cake takes its name.

When Paula from Bellalimento asked me to contribute with a Nutella sweet treat to the blog Bellanutella, I decided to take up the challenge and dig into the Tuscan culinary tradition to find a typical cake made with this delicious chocolate spread… this was definitely a cake worth the trip to the Mount Amiata, I bet you will adore it, too!

Head over to Bellanutella blog to discover the mouthwatering recipe to make the ricciolina!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Tuscan Nutella and meringue tart

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More than a week has passed since I first came to London and in a few days I’ll be back in my mansard over my family kitchen overlooking the woods and fields, waiting for the wheat to turn pale green to announce that the spring has finally arrived.

You may wonder what I have been up to in ​​this first week… if your answer is mostly eating, you are very close to the truth! Being it Indian, English, Turkish or Italian, being it home-made, eaten sitting in a restaurant or standing up waiting for the best Beigel ever tasted or even perched on a rock by the sea, we ate and celebrated the power of food, the best way to communicate, to get to know each other and become friend.

In this never ending feast of abundance, imagination and creativity, there was a sandwich, a very simple one but generous in flavour, that is worth sharing with you. Let’s say it’s an excuse to bring you with me to Beachy Head, but believe me that the sandwich has more than a reason to be celebrated.

Beachy Head, an hour’s drive south of London, is a place that leaves you speechless. Breathtaking is not only the view of the cliffs on a gray winter day, so bright white that it hurts your eyes when kissed by the sun. Breathtaking is also the steep climb back from the lighthouse, against the wind and with a large bag weighed down with camera, gloves, hat, scarf and other bare necessities.

You can tell who is trained and who is not. I am not, but definitely Beachy Head is worth of being short of breath and being almost lifted up by the gale that swept away the clouds and any existential doubts…

But let’s get back to that sandwich, eaten sitting on a white rock looking out to the sea with a thermos full of hot Earl Grey next to us. In these moments, essence wins over anything else: two slices of fresh store-bought organic bread made with caramelized onions, Tuscan salted cured pork shoulder and home-made butter.

To purists it may seem quite an unusual combination, but it reminds me so much of the Tuscan bread, butter and anchovies, the easiest holidays appetizer or one of the most typical afternoon snacks from my childhood.

The salty anchovies – and in this case a few knife cut slices of tasty Tuscan cured pork shoulder or ham – are balanced by the creamy butter, that smooths the edges and softens the flavours. If you have high quality ingredients, there’s really no need to over complicate.

It is just an idea, but try to follow me. You are cutting the fresh bread on a wooden board lit by a slanted sunbeam entering through the kitchen window. The bread is a freshly baked sourdough loaf and the knife makes that tempting sound as it plunges into the crust, that for a while resists then breaks into a crackle, yielding to the softness of the well-leavened bread.

Then there is a small glass dish with the home-made butter, that tastes just like cream and is made only with fresh double cream and a few flakes of Maldon salt. The butter surrenders to the bread slices and creates a melting contrast to the tasty slices of Tuscan pork shoulder, marbled with fat.

You are bringing to the beach all these memories and sensations, wrapped in a paper towel along with the sandwich: there is the crackling sound of the crusty bread, that ray of sunshine that came across the window, the cured Tuscan pork shoulder I brought from home, the silky butter made ​​by a friend and the person who taught you how to make that sandwich. Try it, read inside the sandwich your own story and memories, then tell me if it is just a sandwich or not!

** If you want to make your homemade butter, buy the best double cream and check Sarka’s blog Cook your dream, where you’ll find a recipe beautifully illustrated in its simplicity… marvelous!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Picnic at Beachy Head

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I like San Gimignano in the early morning, when it is still not crowded with tourists, when you see the local people passing along the streets almost incredulous to have San Gimignano for themselves, yet still for just a few more minutes. I like it when the footsteps echo on the cobbled shady streets, resounding between the high walls of the houses.

I like the gray colour of the stones, especially when they have just been washed by the rain of the early spring. In San Gimignano, along the main street that goes to the Cathedral from the park outside the walls, just after the main gate on the left you find the Pasticceria Armando e Marcella, one of my favourite pastry shops in the world. Every time that mum took me there as a little girl, just entered my question was always the same: Mum, could you buy me a rice tartlet?

The subtly lemon scented rice pudding tartlets were my favourite sweet treat as a child, whether bought by mum on a common Saturday when we went to visit my granddad Remigio who lived there, or by my aunt Silvana in an early morning before going to the market when I used to spend in San Gimignano a few days during the summer holidays.

It might depend on their special character or in their essence interwoven with childhood memories and flavours, but they are still my favourite choice on the rare occasions when I have breakfast in a bar, or when I enter in a baker’s shop and they have just been baked and are still warm with a gentle creaminess inside.

I baked them just before leaving for London, in one of those days when you need comfort from food and memories, using my grandma’s rice cake as basic recipe and working on it.

I scribbled down the recipe, took a few pictures and came to London meaning to write this post from here, from the warm and cosy kitchen in South East London, where there is always an Italian coffee. But then, as it always happens to me abroad, I felt like cooking home food and I baked again my rice pudding tartlets for breakfast along with minestrone, my mum’s veggie soup (not for breakfast!). The rice pudding tartlets, changing the country, have changed as well.

In Italy they are and should remain the tartlets you buy in a pastry shop, or better, in your favourite baker’s shop, round or softly oval, wrapped in a paper towel. They are supposed to be eaten standing up, perhaps with a coffee if you’re a grown-up or with a thick pear juice if you are a child, they are covered with icing sugar, that icing sugar that will inevitably dust your best dress in sweetness in the most important morning of your life.

Here in London, in the foodblogger headquarters, where any excuse is good to take new pictures or experiment a new combination, we played around with flavours and presentation. No icing sugar but a spoonful of thick greek yogurt and a drizzle of raspberry sauce, cooked with just a hint of sugar, to add a nice tart note. It goes well with our plans for tomorrow and a cup of Earl Grey.

Now you are spoilt for choice on how to serve these subtle lemon scented rice pudding tartlets, I already tried and tested the recipe for you!

Behind the scenes

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Mum, could you buy me a rice tartlet? The Italian rice pudding tartlets

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My ghost of Christmas past would bring a Tom and Jerry sweatsuit, a big yellow bag which contained the gifts the whole family, a baked fillet of salmon and a spinach flan. If I had to identify in every Christmas past, flipping through my memories album, an element that is always present, that tastes of home and that is repeated every 25th December, I would choose the spinach flan.

It is reassuring and cosy in its creaminess, intriguing thanks to the crunchy crust, the most desired bit at the table. The spinach flan is a side dish that doesn’t steal the scene to the main course, but accompanies it, dressing whatever it is on its Sunday best.

I remember those Christmases past: Mum and Aunt brought to the table a never ending lunch made of appetizers, two starters, a nice fillet of baked salmon and then a generous spoonful of spinach flan. Margherita, the almost-sister-cousin with whom I grew up, and I waited impatiently for that green and creamy spoonful of deliciousness, much more greedy of that than of the classic pandoro or panettone.

The height of success of the spinach flan was during the evening at home in your pajamas, only the four of us. We used to talk about the day watching a Christmas movie and having a “light” dinner with the leftovers. At that time I didn’t even need a dish: Mum put me in front of the mould with the last portion of the spinach flan and I licked the mould clean patiently, savoring the creamy center and the crispy and golden brown crust.

The spinach flan can be an ’80s style dish, perhaps a reflection of my Christmases past, but this year it has the right to enter into the game of the Christmas present.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

The spinach flan of the Christmas Past

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I received a gift. I was living one of those moments in your life when you need to find a goal, something to commit for, something so important to deserve sacrifices and long hours of work. I wanted to find out who I was, I wished to be able to define myself through a dream. In that moment, a few years ago, my passion for food, Tuscany and writing lighted up and showed me what was meant to be made.

I realized I had received a gift, I had been living for my whole life in the Tuscan countryside, one of the most beautiful areas of the world. I could share this passion, the love for my region and for our food and our traditions. That could be the goal I was searching for in the past, that could be the reason that would lead my actions, giving a meaning to my everyday life. This will be my job from January, I couldn’t ask for a greater gift than passion!

This was the ultimate gift, this is the first mental image I had when Gloria asked us to talk about gifts for the Italy blogging roundtable. Don’t miss, on the 14th of December, the posts about gifts written by Gloria and by the other participating writers, Alexandra from ArtTrav, Jessica from Why Go Italy, Melanie from Italofile, and Rebecca from Brigolante.

This said, I am also a material girl and I adore simple gifts, received and made. I love the rustling of decorated paper, untying glittered ribbons or wrapping home-made gourmet gifts with care and imagination for my dear ones and friends.

This is one of the reasons that made me sign up to the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, hosted by Lindsay of Love & Olive oil and Julie of The Little Kitchen:

The premise is this: sign up. Receive the addresses of three other food bloggers. Send each of them one dozen delicious homemade cookies. Receive three different boxes of scrumptious cookies from other bloggers. Eat them all yourself (or, you know, share. If you want. No judgement either way.) Post your cookie recipe on your blog. See everyone else’s cookie recipes. Salivate. Get lots of great ideas for next years’ cookie swap. Rinse and repeat.

How not to sign up? Rossella asked them to extend the chance to take part to the swap to Italy as well, and we managed to reach the critical number of required foodbloggers and we largely exceeded it. Just add foodbloggers, cookies, Christmas and swap into the same jar, shake it up and you have one of the most exciting event of this Christmas!

I received buttery and decadent ginger and chocolate cookies from Nathalie, crunchy Sicilian cookies with pistachios and chocolate from Claudia and original chestnut shortbread cookies from Rossella.

My cookies, instead, travelled all the way to Luisa, Alessandra and Annamaria. Curious to know my recipe? It was a simple short pastry cookie, made with organic flour, butter and eggs and flavoured with the most fresh and natural essences: orange, lemon and mandarin peels, a citrus Christmas for everyone! They are the perfect treat for the afternoon tea, slightly crunchy and fruity. My favourite ones were the lemon and cardamom cookies, amazing with a cup of steaming black coffee.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Gifts, Christmas swaps and short pastry citrus cookies

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Today I’m loving myself. A lot, indeed! I’ve carefully combed my hair – despite the fact that I look like Marge Simpson as soon as I wake up -, I’ve put on a little make up, a touch of mascara and lip gloss, I’ve chose the clothes that I usually save for my special occasions. I didn’t want to talk about Valentine’s Day today, I admit it. Why? um, because I feared to resemble a sad martyr (anybody loves me, I won’t find anybody to share my life with, I will be found three weeks later half-eaten by Alsatians*…) or, on the opposite side, I was afraid to sound false speaking of love when love is not here.

Wait! Wait! a bell rang, or rather it was a gong! Of course love is here! I love myself, I really love this little Juls who decided to live her life following the LOVE! Which love? Whatever! Love for what she does, love for her family, love for her friends.. isn’t it just another shape of love? It’s so nice to be in love with love!

* Bridget Jones’ Diary quote. My father has just call me frightened by my gloomy imagination, eh eh!

Speaking about love, friendship and happiness, on Saturday I was enjoying a lovely evening out with my friends, celebrating Agata’s birthday. I was happy, rejoicing good food and smiling faces.

And there, we started talking about French crêpes. Until two days ago, crêpes were just crepes, nothing special, nothing extraordinary. Then Véronique began to tell us about her crêpes, her grandmother crêpes, made following old proportion of flour and eggs: for each egg you use, add a wooden spoon of plain flour. Then pour in the milk, very slowly. Leave the batter to rest for a few hours, so that it will thicken a bit. Just before making the crêpes, add some tablespoons of sugar to sweeten your crêpes.

You can add other flavours to the crêpes, such as orange flower water or vanilla essence. If you want, you can use other flours as well, for example buckwheat or chestnut flour. Another tip: fold the crêpe in the pan, so that she won’t get cold. Yes, you have read well, she. Véro’s crêpes are feminine entities! Thanks to Véronique’s words the crêpes came to life! Yesterday we met over a cup of tea with other friends and we made the crêpes together.

Crêpes ingredients (serve about 24):

• 6 eggs
• 6 wooden spoons plain flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 500 ml whole milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• butter to grease the pan

Spread ingredients:

• 250 g salted butter
• 200 g raspberries in syrup

Break the eggs in a bowl and add the flour, a heaping wooden spoon for each egg. Stir with the same wooden spoon until smooth: remove any flour lumps. Add a pinch of salt and then pour the milk in a stream, little by little, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches the texture of an English custard.

Let it rest 4 hours in a cool place, not in the fridge.

After 4 hours, add 2 tablespoons of sugar and stir until it is dissolved. This is the moment to flavour your batter, if you fancy an extra aroma, like orange water or vanilla. Heat a non stick pan over medium heat and grease the pan with some butter. Pour a ladleful of batter over the pan, swirl it to coat the bottom with the mixture. As soon as the edges of the crepes become crisp and golden brown, a minute or so, flip the crêpe with a thin silicone spatula and let it cook on the other side until it becomes golden brown.

Fold the crêpe in a half, and then again in a half: put it between two ceramic dishes. This will help keeping the crêpes warm until you’ve finished cooking the rest.

For the raspberry butter spread, leave the salted butter at room temperature until it softens. Whip it and add the raspberries with their syrup. Serve the crêpes with a tablespoon of raspberries spread and a dusting of icing sugar.

Extra tip. Add some chopped dark chocolate for a delicious treat!

Here are some photos of my greatest loves: cooking, friends and food!  I’ve begun this new week with a huge amount of energy, thanks to the friends I met on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, who made my world overflowing with love! I’m sure I won’t be found three weeks later half-eaten by Alsatians!

(Thank you my friends for joining me in a fun Tuscan cooking class!)

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Véronique’s crêpes with salted butter and raspberries

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It was August 2006. We went there for the European Swimming Championships, to follow the steps of the Empress Sissi, to visit the spas, the Imperial palace and the zoo. We returned from Budapest totally in love, drunk with so many gold medals and fascinated by the Hungarian cuisine.

There are many moments carved in my heart from that holiday: beautiful gardens, elegant spas with affordable prices, friendly people, a well-organized subway with the longest and steepest escalator I’ve ever seen, the most hot fresh paprika salad (Laura still cries thinking back at that salad!), colorful markets overflowing with products, where we are also able to explain us with signs and buy three whistles to cheer at the competitions, breathtaking night views of the Danube.

Beside this, we lived the most exciting sport experience ever (obviously as spectators): gold medals won scream after scream, encouragement after encouragement, painted faces and posters designed with markers on the hostel floor. The stands were shaking beneath our jumps when we were singing out national anthem with tears in our eyes. We were suffering from supporter’s fever, and we did our best not to recover from it!

Perhaps for this reasons, or perhaps because of the special character of the city, Budapest conquered our hearts: Budapest is a city with a unique soul and an unmissable atmosphere, made up, in the same time, by many distinctly different neighbourhoods, on one hand narrow lanes, shadowed alleys and hidden courtyards, on the other hand monumental squares, magnificent palaces and ruins of a past characterized by a pattern of lights and shades.

Our guide was full of tabs and colourful slips of paper. A page was stressed more than the others and, at a closer look, you can still find a few crumbs. From the Budapest DeAgostini guide: on the north side of the Vorosmarty square there is the renowned pastry Gerbeaud, founded in the 1858 by Henrik Kugler, later acquired by the Swiss confectioner Emil Gerbeaud, to whom we owe the current interior decor. During the summer it is very pleasant to spent some time on the front terrace, sipping coffee and following the frenetic movement of the coloured square.

How could we miss such an opportunity to relax and recharge ourself before heading to the championship competition to support our heroes? There, at Gerbeaud, we met for the first time the Dobos Torte, the flagship of the Hungarian confectionery, a dessert invented by the confectioner József C. Dobos in 1884. He presented the Dobos Torte at the Budapest general exhibition in 1885. To add fame and prestige to an already excellent cake, we must remember that the first ones to taste the Dobos were the Emperor Franz Joseph and the Princess Sissi. The dessert soon became famous throughout Europe, partly because the pastry chef travelled far and wide to present his creation. The recipe was kept secret for ages until Dobos retired and gave the recipe to the Chamber of pastry in Budapest.

How to live again those emotions? A slice of Dobos Torte is all you need! Once again I must say thanks to Twitter, because through it I met Zita, a talented Hungarian foodblogger. From the Christmas holidays till today we have exchanged tweets and advices, both extremely curious about each other’s gastronomic culture, and not only. So today is a slightly special day because we are making a cross cultural recipe exchange, posting in the same time two recipes we picked to exchange, a way to learn something, having fun and crossing national borders.

She baked one of the most typical recipes of my country, Ricciarelli di Siena (almond cookies), while, on the other side, I could finally get my hands over the Dobos Torte, a demanding but extremely satisfying challenge. I made two attempts before reaching the desired result, which I’m publishing today, with the final amount of ingredients and procedure I followed to get to that idea of perfection that was impressed in my mind as one of the best desserts ever tried.

Five thin layers of sponge cake, spread with a chocolate buttercream, ending with a caramel coated layer of sponge cake, which protects and keeps the cake fresh for a long time. Elegant, refined, good of a full, round and delicious good, with the slightly bitter and crunchy caramel to complete a perfect harmony. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Dobos Torte!

Ingredients for the dough

Making the dough. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Separate yolks and egg whites. Whip the yolks and the sugar together with the lemon juice and the scraped vanilla pod seeds using an electric mixer until they are light, white and creamy. Add the flour and the lemon zest and mix until thoroughly incorporated.

In another bowl whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites into the mixture. The final mixture should be light, white and very soft.

You need to bake now 6 circle sponge cakes: you can use a 25 cm diameter mould, previously greased and dusted with flour, dividing the batter into 6 parts and baking one cake after the other, or you can spread one sixth of the dough on a rectangular tin lined with parchment paper and then cut out a circle with a large mould.

Whatever method you choose, pour the batter onto the baking sheet and bake the 6 circles for 5-7 minutes until golden brown. As soon as it is ready, remove the cake from the oven, unmould or remove the parchment paper and place on a wire rack to cool. Set them aside, separated by parchment paper, and let them cool.

Making the chocolate buttercream filling. In a bowl whip together the butter, the icing sugar, the cocoa, the vanilla seeds and the rum. Mix everything together until combined.

Making the caramel coating. Pick the best and most regular sponge cake. In a pan on medium heat caramelize the sugar with the lemon juice, stirring constantly. When it is very liquid and orange, pour it on the top of the sponge cake. With a buttered spatula spread and smooth the caramel on the cake. You need to work quickly not to let the caramel harden. Perforate and cut the caramel coat into 12 slices (I used a buttered large knife, they have a very useful form that divides the cake into slices!).

Finish the cake. Spread the chocolate buttercream on the sponge cakes, place them on top of each other. Spread the cream also on the side of the cake. Sprinkle the side of the cake with some crumbled leftover sponge cake or ground dried fruit. Place the caramel wedges on the top of the cake, placing each one of them on a piped dollop of chocolate buttercream to give them their classical slant. Before serving keep it in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Dobos Torte, the 127-year-old Hungarian dessert

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Short pastry and crostata were the first sweet recipes I tried when I was just a child. During my long summer breaks, I used to spend my whole time with Chiara, a classmate from the elementary school who soon had become one of my best friends and my summer joyride mate. We used to ride our bicycles from morning to evening, exploring nearby countryside. We had to do our summer homework tough, but we shared the duty, sitting on a table under honey scented linden trees in her garden, drinking iced tea and nibbling at cookies and fresh fruit.

Our passion were picnics! We started with simple ham and cheese sandwiches and fruit salad to reach the highest levels of refinement and creativity the year we decided to organize an English party in the middle of the field! We even asked our sisters and friends to come with fancy dress costumes! Every year, there was a constant: short pastry cookies and crostata.

Therefore, I was very happy when I saw that this month Daring bakers’ theme was crostata, a well-known Italian recipe, and most of all a family favourite! The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of Briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

I was happy also because it was a brand new version of short pastry, totally different from my usual pastafrolla (as we call it in Italy). For example, here you can find my family recipe for short pastry, while this is my version with olive oil instead of butter. Last but not least, this is another version, the one I learned from last year cooking class!

I made short pastry following Simona’s recipe, and I loved it till the last crumble. With the pastafrolla I obtained, I made two crostate, using a 10 x 30 cm tin. I used leftover dough to make delicious cookies filled with raspberry jam.

Making Pastafrolla

Ingredients:

• vanilla powdered sugar, 90 g
• unbleached all-purpose flour, 235 g
• a pinch of salt
• cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, 115 g
• 1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl

Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl. Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice.

Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a teaspoon of the egg mixture for glazing purposes later on – place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use). Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.

Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball. Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.

This delicious crème de marrons de l’Ardèche – a French chestnut spread – had waited patiently in my cupboard for too long, since FoodBlogger Connect 2010, when Pam was so nice to bring a gourmet gift from France for us! It was time – and season, most of all – to use it in a delicious and delicate tart.

Crostata filled chestnut pastry cream

Ingredients:

• short pastry, 1/2 batch
  
• milk, 250 ml
• egg, 1
• sugar, 2 tablespoons
• plain flour, 1 tablespoon
• chestnut spread, 1 heaping tablespoon
• ground nutmeg, 1 pinch

Making chestnut pastry cream. Heat milk on medium heat until the steaming point. Whip egg with sugar and flour. Fold in chestnut spread. Pour hot milk over the egg mixture and bring back to the heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. As soon as the pastry cream is thick and veils the spoon, remove from the heat, cover with cling film and let cool down.

Assembling the tart. Heat the oven to 180ºC. Grease a 10×30 cm baking tin and dust with flour. Take the pasta frolla out of the fridge, unwrap it and roll it out. To help roll the crostata dough, keep the dough on top of the plastic wrap that you had it wrapped in. This can help rolling the dough and can also help when transferring the dough to your pan. You can also use parchment paper for this. However, you can also roll the dough directly on a work surface if you prefer. Lightly dust the top of the dough and your work surface with flour. Keep some flour handy to dust the dough as you go along.

If you used the plastic wrap or parchment paper as rolling surface, flip dough over the pan, centering it, and delicately press it all around so the corners are well covered. Peel away the plastic wrap. Trim the excess dough hanging over the edges of the pan. Press the remaining dough around the border into the sides of the pan making sure the border is an even thickness all the way around. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork in several places.

Cover the bottom of the crostata crust evenly with the chestnut pastry cream and sprinkle with a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg. Put the tart in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the tart is of a nice golden hue. When done, remove the tart from the oven and let cool. If you have used a tart pan with a removable bottom, then release the tart base from the fluted tart ring. Make sure the tart is completely cool before slicing and serving.

Chocolate and tahini. I still remember the first time I saw this two ingredients used together into the same sweet preparation. It was La Tartine Gourmande’s molten chocolate cake, a love at first sight. I used to consider tahini just a savoury ingredient until that day, when I suddenly realized it could be used with gourmet results in sweet recipes as well, paired with chocolate. Since that day, I’ve dreamed about a chocolate and tahini tart, supported by Meeta’s examples, who used this mix twice, in macarons and clafoutis. Well, believe me, give it a try! I’m a chocoholic, I admit it, but tahini gives a totally new and unexpected depth and character to chocolate, making it one of the best chocolate cake ever eaten. Maldon salt is the icing on the cake: it creates a crisp and luscious contrast, that enhances the velvety sensation given by chocolate and tahini.

Crostata with chocolate and tahini filling

Ingredients:

• short pastry, 1/2 batch
• whole milk, 250 ml
• dark chocolate, 120 g
• egg, 1
• sugar, 2 tablespoons
• cornstarch, 1 tablespoon
• tahini, 1 tablespoon
• Maldon salt or fleur de sel

Making chocolate and tahini filling. Heat milk on medium heat with chopped dark chocolate. Stir frequently, until completely melted. Whip egg with sugar and cornstarch. Fold in tahini. Pour hot milk and melted chocolate over the egg and tahini mixture and bring back over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. As soon as the chocolate and tahini cream is thick and veils the spoon – about 5 minutes -, remove from the heat, cover with cling film and let cool down.

Assembling the tart. Heat the oven to 180ºC. Proceed as in the other recipe and bake for about 30 minutes. When done, remove the tart from the oven, sprinkle with Maldon salt or fleur de sel and let cool. Make sure the tart is completely cool before slicing and serving.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

DB Challenge: crostata with 2 fillings {chocolate & tahini and chestnut pastry cream}

You should be interested also in:

1. Chocolate & Tahini Truffles
2. Chestnut flour and chocolate drops biscotti
3. Chocolate, cream and mascarpone trifle

Winter is approaching, with its dark and cold nights, with the wind blowing through the bare trees branches. Even Christmas is coming with long strides, along with the desire for rich and sumptuous food, food full of stories, tales, spices, and faraway travels, food loaded with fantasy, adventure and excitement. For me, Dutch cocoa is all about this. It has its own romantic fairy tale elements, as the cocoa aroma takes me back in a blink of an eye to Vianne’s kitchen, to foretell your life into hot chocolate whirls. But Dutch cocoa has something more inside: the sense of adventure and exotic, the luscious food of the seventeenth century European courts, the fragrant treasure in the hold of the Dutch navigators.

These cupcakes were born with the shameless intention to celebrate Dutch cocoa, to intoxicate with the deep aroma from the very first bite, to win – with a hidden charm – even the most reluctant heart. Hence the wanderer cupcakes, with Dutch cocoa and Swiss meringue. The recipe takes inspiration for the chocolate cupcakes made by Sigrid – Regalini Golosi book – and the Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting from Smitten Kitchen.

Ingredients to make cupcakes:

• sugar, 300 g
• butter, 100 g
• eggs, 2
• plain flour, 150 g
• unsweetened Dutch cocoa, 100 g
• baking powder, 5 g
• milk, 250 ml

Preheat oven to 180°C. Mix flour, cocoa and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl, beat softened butter and sugar until soft and light. Add one egg at a time, and stir until it is incorporated. Stir into half of the flour and cocoa mixture and pour the milk. Fold in the rest of the dry mixture. Spoon the mixture into 16 cupcakes, filling each cup about two-thirds full. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes, then let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Ingredients to make the Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting:

• egg whites, 2
• sugar, 100 g
• butter, 175 g
• unsweetened Dutch cocoa, 5 heaping tablespoons

Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a big metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until the albumens get white and glossy and you can’t feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.

Wipe the condensation off the bottom of the bowl and transfer mixture into the mixer and whip until it turns firm, cold and about doubled in size. Finally, add the butter a piece at a time and whip until throughly incorporated and firm. Do not panic! It will require time, but eventually it works!  Fold in sieved cocoa powder.

Spoon the Swiss meringue buttercream frosting into a pastry bag and decorate cupcakes as desired. Let rest in refrigerator for at least an hour. Before serving, dust with Dutch cocoa.

Tasting test. The Dutch cocoa is the main and proud character of these cupcakes. It is enhanced by the creaminess of butter and by the soft tiny cakes. At the very end, all that remains is an intense and rich feeling, slightly bitter, of which you can never get tired nor bored. Serve them as a lavish afternoon treat with a black jasmine tea.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Dutch cocoa cupcakes

You should be interested also in:

1. Gluten free cupcakes with strawberry buttercream
2. Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake – Are you a cook or eat person?
3. Cocoa No Knead Bread